protests are expected to greet president obama as he arrives in the west bank with palestinians unhappy over a lack of movement from the u.s. and israel towards a two state solution this is obama reaffirms washington's unbreakable bond with television. pull in a china shop russia's prime minister slams the e.u. over its handling of cyprus is economic turmoil in a cool welcome for the brussels officials who arrive in moscow attempting to calm the financial storm. in syria's government and opposition rebels both demand an international probe deadly chemical attack that both sides are blaming on each other.

welcome you're watching with me. now for rockets have reportedly been fired from gaza into israel where u.s. president barack obama is on his first foreign visit since reelection he's expected to head to the west bank later on thursday as part of his middle east tour our correspondent. and joins us live. firstly what more can you tell us about this morning's rocket attacks. well as you say there were four rockets that were fired from the northern gaza and town of beit hanoun as israel two landed inside gaza but one landed in the backyard of a residential home in the southern israeli town of stuart now there were no injuries although there was some damage to the back yard this coming on the second day of the american president barack obama's visit to the region and just hours before he will arrive here in the palestinian city of ramallah there are many who

feel that this is a message from the palestinians not only those in gaza but city also the palestinian street here in the west bank expressing anger against the american president who they feel is showing a much stronger commitment to israelis and the israeli position than he is to the palestinians although the official word is that this latest incident is not going to disrupt his schedule for today so we do expect him arriving here in ramallah in the next two to three hours ok well let's just quickly talk about what has or hasn't been achieved so far during his visit i mean he an israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu haven't always seen eye to eye have they so what sort of common ground they found so far. well certainly the two leaders have not always seen eye to eye and that is why this visit is largely being dubbed as a p.r. effort by both the israelis who have a calling at the un breakable alliance and the americans so he obama so far is speaking primarily to the israeli public and he admitted as much last night after he met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he said that his goal is to

talk to the israelis he has used words such as friends such as coming home he's spoken about the close alliance between washington and tel aviv he's spoken about the importance of israeli security and he's also committed american financial assistance to israel particularly in terms of military programs beyond two thousand and seventeen when the current contracts expire now there's been very little mention so far of the palestinians of the peace process of the continued israeli settlement expansion and this is in stark contrast to the speech the president gave back in two thousand and nine in cairo when he said that one of his priorities in terms of his foreign policy was was oving the palestinian issue having said that though there is a lot of mistrust between obama and netanyahu there is a lot of areas and disagreement they certainly don't see eye to eye on the issue of iraq and here we have mr yahoo continuing to call for a military strike while obama continues to say that all options are on the table

and that there is still time for diplomacy so certainly in this what we see is that despite the p.r. efforts there is no running away from the fact that netanyahu still holds firm to israeli commitment even if it means turning his back on his close allies we here in this clip. israel can never shoot right to defend ourselves to others even to the greatest of our friends and israel has no better friend than the united states of america what is also interesting is the whole issue of syria now this has been the number one issue on the table and in. this is despite the fact that you have right on the doorsteps of the israelis and the palestinians a conflict that is decades old and yet the american president and israeli prime minister are choosing by and large to ignore it and rather to focus on the internal violence across the border. where you mentioned there paula. the palestinian issue

hasn't been talked about much by obama so what sort of reception do you think you'll get when he heads the west bank later today how the palestinians feel in general about his whistle stop tour. well there's already been a handful of demonstrations against the american president here in the west bank and certainly today the police already now are in full force on the streets there's a strong security presence and this is and in anticipation of the thousands of people who are expected to come to the streets to protest against the american prison president's arrival here the plan is for him to meet at the mccotter the palestinian headquarters you see behind me he'll be meeting with the palestinian president mahmoud abbas as well as the palestinian prime minister salam fayad no real information that we have at this stage in terms of what will be presented during those talks but we do think that the american president is likely to ask the palestinian leadership to resume talks without preconditions now this is an israeli

position the palestinian position is that they needs to be a return to nine hundred sixty seven borders there needs to be a halt in construction of settlements and in this respect the anticipation and at least the analysis on the ground is that obama is not going to push the israelis but rather push the palestinians to meet the israeli demands there's also differences over the issue of jerusalem a lot of criticism here in ramallah why did obama meet with the israeli leadership in jerusalem and the palestinian leadership in ramallah is he sending out a message in terms of how america views jerusalem why not nice with his radio leadership in television for example meet with the palestinian leadership in jerusalem so there's anger here over that certainly the mood is one of the stray ssion one of anger and one of disappointment for the american president barack obama ok paula we do have to leave it there but thank you for that update it will be interesting to see what happens that is clear live from the west bank political analyst abraham illusion says palestinians are angry over an apparent lack of desire on the part of israel and the west to bring peace to the region.

there's nothing substantial to be expected from this visit the primary goal of this visit is to embellish obama's image as an unsigned matanya whole personality and so this is mainly a public relations visit that is meant to improve the status of the democratic party in the united states visibly the israeli lobby and the u.s. congress of all the things that are supposed to be discussed during obama's visit to occupied palestine i think the question of iran being a target is probably the most important one on the list obviously we have different agendas here but at the same time let's not forget is that the prominence of iran and the gulf area and across the other breeds and of you has also upsetting nato's balance of power and that aids them as far as this so-called peace process.

there's nothing on the table really and all that is being asked of the palestinian authority is so for this to accept unconditional surrender of the israeli terms. well the president of the palestinian authority mahmoud abbas also appears to have little hope of tangible results from the bomber's visit as mentioned before the two presidents meet later on thursday in the exclusive interview with r.t. arabic channel of us says there are plenty of words but little action when it comes to israeli settlement expansion full interview is coming up a bit later on but here's a quick taste. in his statements president obama has repeatedly voiced his opposition to illegal land exist propagation and we think his right now all that remains sees to translate words into action but i have always asked americans and europeans to tell me if there has been

a single miscalculation on my part in domestic or foreign policies over eight years well the israel makes mistakes every day so why don't you let them know. big talks over a tiny country moscow has become the focal point in efforts to solve cypresses economic crisis with issues arrived in the russian capital on thursday joining the cypriot finance minister who is already in town yelling euro zone state is running out of time to avoid bankruptcy pressure increasing from brussels after the country's parliament rejected preconditions from. reports e.u. officials are gathering in the russian capital including the head of the european commission as a man or barroso they're expected to discuss the crisis in cyprus with the russian of the audi's and this is happening after prime minister dmitry medvedev had some

really strong words to say about the whole situation but so far the e.u. together with the cyprus parliament have unfortunately acted like a bull in a china shop i think all possible mistakes which could have been made in this situation have been made the prime minister didn't stop there he also compared the approach with which european union officials are ready to deal with bribing bank accounts through how soviet authorities dealt with the money of soviet citizens meaning expropriation of private property now the cypriot finance minister is also in moscow on wednesday he met with his russian counterpart and also with the first deputy prime minister there is speculation that cyprus is asking russia for a loan the finance minister said that no official offer has been made for a car but he stressed he's not leaving the russian capital until an agreement is reached and now all this is happening despite angela merkel being completely

furious with cyprus for even talking to moscow about this earlier she directly called on the country not even to consult with anyone on its current economic problems except for the us also and the so-called troika of investors earlier the cypriot quadrant rejected enjoy this bailout proposal which included taxing private bank account. it's. the countries or the cypriot media reports that the country's calment is set to review one alternative plan of trying to resolve the crisis on thursday not many details are normally known but perhaps it could include plans to tap into social funds away at the retirement fund through through which simply its authority squared to collect around five billion euros which is pretty much the same amount he would have collected if be introduced to this tax for private bank accounts in the meantime time for the country is running out the cypriot banking system is still shut down and the country's president has said that the crisis must

be resolved before the end of the day. well the european central bank says it will have to cut cypresses funding unless the island state gets a bailout saying robert always chairman of the bruges group which is in the focus think tank police the e.u.'s pressure on cyprus exposes a worrying hierarchy within the block. it seems that certain countries such as germany are we pushing their own agenda and those countries are to small and can't really stand up to the larger interests in the your opinion the large financial interests of french and german banks are really pushed around and are and are bullied and do not get a good deal and this is very dark from the e.u. to try and take a percentage of the savings of the. banks which is actually we could argue that's actually breaching e.u. rules on protection taking deposits so it's actually very silly and it's also bullying and he's actually counterproductive because it's now threatening the whole

banking system in southern europe because people see he's no friend of those who have tapings in bank accounts he's no friend of protecting deposits and bank profits on what actually is this really otherwise should be and it's a story that's generated a lot of opinion and later this hour are things max kaiser gives his take on cyprus . they just keep blowing this this this this chunks of vomit in people's face the people in cyprus are being knocked down with projectile vomit coming out of the mouth of of the e.c.b. and the i.m.f. christine lagarde is projectile vomiting into the face of the people of cyprus and saying eat that shit up and they're saying kill i'm not in the environment and i'm not a proper just either christie and then the new york times all right what's the big deal i marry ross sorkin i don't see anything wrong here meanwhile he's sucking kristi's down as fast as he can.

then i coming up later this hour powerless and hopeless the condition of one town in my bay prison is. as they continue their hunger strike with the first official reaction. after more than a month of silence. the u.k. government awards world war two. veterans who took supplies to the soviet union some consider it to soften up after they were refused permission to accept russia's award what's been described as the worst journey in the. world with. money and technology innovation called the least of elements from

around russia we've gone to the future or covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations rule today.

well again last syria's government and rebels are both demanding an international probe into a deadly attack that both sides claim was with the use of chemical weapons they traded accusations as to who was behind the assault near the northern city of aleppo that killed up to thirty one people and wounded dozens of others artie's an igloo is following the developments. reports that chemical weapons have been used in the. area of the aleppo province this is are not clear at the moment people were rushed to hospital after the attack few had visible wounds to their bodies but some of them were clearly suffering from some breathing difficulties now the exams of the assaults were saying that they saw other people falling to the floor dying witnesses have confirmed to r.t. that people have been suffering from effects of what seems to be some sort of guess . who. you hear.

where you're. over. now who could be behind this attack both assad's forces and rebels are pointing the finger of blame at each other but the rockets reportedly fell in areas controlled by the government the syrian rebels have long tried to overrun the weapons plant located in the very same area you can see on the map right there aleppo and then also fear that is the place where some of the country's chemical stockpile is said to be stored in fact the syrian government said in december that rebel forces plundered supplied of chlorine gas and some time ago this video was posted online showing animals purportedly being killed with chemicals those behind this footage affiliated themselves with assad's opponents and threaten to do the same with those who support the syrian president yet all of this evidence doesn't seem to convince president obama deeply skeptical. cloying in fact it was the

opposition that used chemical weapons and interesting use of the word skeptical with the stakes being so high one of the biggest concerns for all is this an area where syria's chemical arsenal falls into the hands of extremists fighters among opposition forces as history has shown there are examples when fighters supported by the west have eventually turned their arms against their backers now let's for just a moment imagine that extremists among the rebel fighters could get hold of chemical weapons how bad could the rounded attacks for example of two thousand and five have been if that was the case we've already seen images of a chemical attack on a subway in a huge city in one thousand nine hundred five in tokyo by religious sect now imagine a similar scenario was staged by people who work throughout the conflict in syria initially supported by the west a top u.s. general says the hunger strike among guantanamo bay prisoners shows their frustration with the government's failure to close the facility rejecting reports

it is the mistreatment and the desecration of the quote the number of participants acknowledged by the pentagon has now risen to twenty five with detainees lawyers maintain it's more than one hundred. just the latest. what we see here is a small protest in front of the white house one told him oh have been out of the media spotlight for a while now you don't see much coverage on major u.s. news channels even with the hunger strike going on there right now so these people are trying to draw attention to the detainees more than fifty lawyers representing the president sent a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help in that letter they said the participants health had deteriorated alarmingly and some had lost more than twenty or thirty pounds that is nine to fourteen kilograms medical experts say by day forty five participants can experience potential blindness and potential loss of hearing so what prompted these people to resort to such a desperate move i was a consultant if you were the case. those men would tell their attorney basically i

don't want to talk with your what's the point of talking with you i don't want to know the date i'm going to get out of here but there is no gate people. are as many of the detainees have come to believe in this what they say we heard this from their lawyers that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in january department shut down the office that was working to close guantanamo more than half of those detainees are sitting there with papers from the u.s. clearing them for with yet with no hope that they're ever going to be free again the officials are certainly trying to downplay the hunger strike but they're pressed for answers and they sure know what's going on and what cost the strike in the first place marine corps general john kelly and it's his command that oversees guantanamo he was testifying in congress this wednesday he said the prisoners had launched the hunger strike because they're frustrated take a listen they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were

devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this thing turned you don't get it back in the mean. this week the un commissioner for human rights responded to our inquiry and said they're aware of the hunger strike and that they are trying to confirm the details in the same letter the human rights body says they have quote repeatedly regretted that the us government has not closed guantanamo bay on our part will continue to press officials for answers as the strike continues and involves more people in washington i'm going to check on. a more large parts of the media play down the issue r.t. has been following the story from the beginning we've got a timeline of events on our web site where we've also gathered comments by the u.n. prison officials detainees attorney attorneys and activists to give you a full picture of what is going on so you can head to r.t. dot com for that and here is what else you'll find ned the voyager spacecraft may

have become the first manmade object to exit the solar system and find out all the details online plus discover the wrath that almost cools yet another meltdown at japan's fukushima nuclear plant find out how close the country came to disaster all because of one rodent going through a few wise morna at r.t. dot com. a select group of u.k. world war two veterans have been awarded by prime minister david cameron for their service during the arctic convoys the convoys brought supplies to the soviet union in the fight against nazi germany last year london was criticised for rejecting moscow's offer to grant the british veterans a special award and this party boyko reports feelings of gratitude are with sadness and anger. a quarter of a million men took part in the arctic convoys over seventy years ago sadly today

just a handful of those brave men still survived off to decades of campaigning the case that convoy veterans are at downing street to pick up their new limited medals. but launch a lot of projects will be worth it it's been a long war he'd. been a wonderful day long time coming but tonight it's around one there will be a sadness as more ship night has crossed the bow. on soldier to die during the war ninety two year old vic bashford served in the royal air force as an electrical engineer him he was part of a secret operation that traveled on board the fust arctic convoy to russia back in one thousand nine hundred forty one stalin was urging mr due to start a second ago but. into the frog to relieve the pressure on

the russians mr churchill so we were thorough knew some airplanes and we also knew of the main the flaw in them well so near the moon to the buying time and. i will treat you and we will furnish more appliance so that's how we came to to be in russia during world war two british ships transported around four million tons of supplies food and munitions for the soviet union more than three thousand sailors didn't survive the journey west subzero temperatures and german air raids were a fact of life on earth. on the rigging on the royals on the dirt. crash. of the. frogs and of course who wrote the die after die after their so you can be a bit frightening last year the british government came under fire for blocking veterans from receiving a special commemorative award from the russian government that called medal was to

be awarded as a symbol of gratitude for all that british veterans did to help the soviet union during the darkest days of the war and with whom we went to see who was yet despite the opposition of m.p.'s the foreign office blocked the move saying the fight against nazi germany happened too long ago for the men to be recognised effectively leaving some veterans to die without recognition for their service and the thanks state deserved i think it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful that the we were not the commode humans i mean all stroy humans are those that move in their movements though been a wall removed except one of us normally already knew the russians he was holding to us. this arctic star is. a little bit of a. soft. if you're. not with the pride that

i would. the russians. for those who braved the arctic waters and served their country all those years ago it's a day of celebration shaking hands with the prime minister followed by a reception on the h.m.s. belfast with their arctic stars in tow but for many it's a celebration that's left a bitter aftertaste for the owner that's come too late for those who could still wear at. r.t. london. just coming up see while hof possibly even here in moscow and after the bright the financial turmoil inside person is up for discussion in the cost.

of. wealthy british style. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. download the official application to your cell phone choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television well it just doesn't matter how would your mobile device if you could watch on t.v. any time anyway. when their own country trying to offer them a living even those sometimes have to leave their children behind. is the dream of millions of migrant children might choose the.

room. i want my children to win over moscow. russia has become. to find a way home. by imax kaiser this is the kaiser a four yo are still in new york city before we start i want to oppression of time square nine hundred sixty five. this will sign a lot of times where it's all gone now well max people really want to know not about the callaghan but they want to know about the cyprus man what's happening on the streets of cyprus so we're going to talk about that because there's you know there's a little song called by fiscal cliff richard i don't know if you recall.